The little girl who died yesterday after collapsing the previous day outside her Grant City home had a mature understanding of the world and a tenderness toward others not usually seen in children her age, those who knew her said.

Carla's preternatural wisdom may have come, in part, from her lifelong health struggle with her heart, which ultimately stopped beating Saturday morning.

"She was the bright spot in my day, every day. A really, really special girl," said Bonnie Marrone, who taught her as a first grader at nearby PS 52.

Ms. Marrone and other teachers today visited Carla's distraught parents in the modest duplex on Hull Avenue, where the little girl had lived in an upstairs apartment. They walked out the front door, past the little pink bicycle parked outside, crying and holding onto each other for consolation over the loss of a little girl so full of sunshine.

"She gave you a hug every day, and could always tell how you were feeling, or if you really needed a hug," said Ms. Marrone, describing Carla's attentiveness and quiet dedication to her schoolwork, and how, in first grade, she put all her effort into learning English.

"She was one of those unforgettable students, it was like she had another sense about her," mused Ms. Marrone, as other teachers nodded along. "For Halloween this year she had told us she was going to be an angel."

Carla's parents were too upset to talk to anybody today, family friends said.

Their love and hope for their daughter was so full, and their prayers she would defy medical odds were so powerful, that her death came as a shock.

"They sat in silence all day yesterday," said the Rev. Terry Troia, who came to know the family after they arrived from Mexico three years ago, in hopes of finding a cure for their daughter's heart disease. "They did everything they could. It was simply a matter of time."

Neighbors found Carla Saturday, lying face-down and blue. They called 911, and the girl was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, where she was a pronounced dead.

Police initially thought she may have choked. But the case was not reported to the Medical Examiner's office, for investigation as her death was linked to her health condition.

"She was a jewel, she really shone out. She was very compassionate and loving, always concerned about other people; she would come up to you and hug you," said the Rev. Troia. "She was very intelligent and the apple of her parents' eyes."